“We’re multi-ethnic,” Mayernick explains, referring to Orthodox worshippers from Russia, Serbia, Moldova and other Eastern European locales who have moved to the Gulf Coast.

Russian Orthodox and Greek Orthodox are the same faith, he says, with varying cultural traditions.

“Historically the Panhandle,” says Mayernick, “going from New Orleans to Tallahassee, were exclusively Greek communities. As later immigrations took place, they didn’t have established parishes, but they’re all Orthodox Christians. We had to make adjustments.”

Mayernick has been the visiting priest at St. Athanasios since a year after its opening a decade ago.

Because the congregation is small — a chapel, not yet a mission church, says Mayernick — it does not have the appointment of a full-time priest.

But weekly, since the chapel was built, Mayernick and his wife, Joan, have driven the 110 miles from Niceville, Fla., for the 10 a.m. Sunday service.

On Jan. 20, 2012, His Eminence Metropolitan Alexios of Atlanta will come to Gulf Shores to consecrate the chapel.

Mobile businessman Nick Catranis, who has a house nearby, was the moving force, and benefactor, for St. Athanasios’ creation.

“My wife and I built this chapel,” says Catranis, “in order for the people to have an Orthodox place to go to prayer.”

Designed by Mobile architect Pete Vallas in a traditional island Byzantine style, St. Athanasios has a blue dome, terracotta roof and white-washed walls.

Outwardly, it creates a decided visual contrast to the nearby seafood restaurants and beach emporia.

Inside, icons of Jesus, Mary and the saints look on.

The air fills with incense as Mayernick swings the ceremonial burner — the censer — and conducts the service.

He decided to introduce the Russian Lord’s Prayer into the service seven years ago.

The Russian newcomers, says Mayernick, didn’t always have the same freedom of religion as their Greek Orthodox counterparts, and their religious education often suffered.

For much of the 20th century, Mayernick says, the former Soviet Union persecuted people of faith.

Natalia Martin’s Christianity once got her into trouble.

When Soviet authorities discovered her singing at a church in her hometown, Krasnodar, in southern Russia, she lost her job as a schoolteacher, she says.

She came to the U.S. when she married an American, she says, and now lives in Gulf Shores.

In leading the choir at St. Athanasios, the singing interwoven with spoken prayer, she feels inspired to great heights.

Martin says that it is not only the people who are lifting their voices in hymns, but that “the angels are singing.”

For Russian natives Olga Kulas and Larissa Sukhorukova, St. Athanasios holds special appeal.

On Sunday they drive to the church from Pensacola, even though there is a Greek Orthodox church closer to home. There is a spirit of togetherness they find in the small, devout congregation with global roots.

Mayernick, 60, says that his personal history as a Greek Orthodox priest has given him a special feel for a culturally diverse community.

A Cleveland native of Russian lineage, Mayernick was a military chaplain in the U.S. Air Force for 25 years. He also counseled, as chaplain, men and women of all faiths outside of Sunday church time.

“I served all Orthodox Christians, no matter where they were from,” he says, adding, “We rejoice to have different cultural backgrounds here.”

There are pleasures to be had, too, from that diversity.

The pot luck dinner after the service features both blinis — Russian pancakes — and Greek baklava.